Jamestown vs. Plymouth Essay Example

Jamestown and Plymouth were the first two successful English colonies in North America. Jamestown was established in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620. Jamestown and Plymouth had many similarities. For example they both had some sort of government in some way. Jamestown had the first legislative assembly among the Western Hemisphere in 1619. This would later be called the, “House of Burgesses.” This served as a good model for many law making bodies in the U.S. Plymouth had a similar government. Their government consisted of general court. They also had a Governor. The government made laws and also levied taxes. Another similarity between the two is neither of the colonies was funded by the royal family. Colonists at Jamestown and Plymouth suffered greatly in the beginning - the colonists at Jamestown weren't used to the hard labor they had to do and suffered from illness, while the colonists at Plymouth arrived later during the year and suffered from an extremely harsh winter. Plymouth and Jamestown also had many distinct differences. For example, they both had different reasons for settlement. The Plymouth colony was in search for religious freedom from England. Jamestown wanted to spread Christianity to the natives and expand English trade. Another difference in these two was their economic cultures. Jamestown experimented with many different things but their main crop was tobacco. Plymouth didn’t have much luck with farming. They took part of another era, trading. They traded fur to the natives and locals. They also found an industry in fishing due to their thin rocky soil. In Jamestown, it was Europeans and in Plymouth it was Pilgrims. In Jamestown the conflicts were on the economic issue while in Plymouth, it were on economy and religion as well. In Jamestown, the Europeans were dependent on Indians because they could not cultivate land whereas in Plymouth, the Pilgrims were not dependent on Indians since they already found the means to survive. These two